false 39747 1930846398 9781930846395 57 6 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169310739m/39747.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39747.The_Empire_of_Ice_Cream 19305 Jeffrey Ford 1725 325 3 0 false Thu Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 08:08:29 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 08:11:19 -0700 2009
I read “The Girl in the Glass,” a novel by Ford, several months ago. It was good, but not blow-your-mind. So, I had taken his other books off my wishlist. However, someone had already picked up a copy of “Empire of Ice Cream,” a collection of his short stories, and I was gifted it shortly thereafter.

And really? Ford is definitely in his element with the short story.

Carroll’s intro explains it best: “One of the mot terrible losses man endures in his lifetime is not even noticed by most people, much less mourned. …

“I’m talking about the sense of wonder that is such an integral part of the world when we are children. …

“As adults we are not supposed to say or feel Wow, or wonder, of even true surprise because those things make us sound goofy, ingenuous, and childlike.

“When I sat down to read Jeffrey Ford’s ‘Empire of Ice Cream,’ I knew only one thing: that for the next few hundred pages my mind would be swinging from a trapeze high above the ground with no net below.”

This really encapsulates the essence of these stories, I think. One of the quirky aspects of my personality is that I do strive to see the awe in every day; to recapture that essence of wonder in the world around me. And in this collection, Ford really pushes the boundaries of imagination … usually without going so far as to find me running away screaming (pure sci fi and fantasy are not pushing boundaries to me; they go beyond the boundaries and try to create something wholly new … and I can never feel a sense of reality from them). He takes you from a vivid, ripe description of your world, to an altered, blurry version, recrisp-ed and possible.

I’ve been reading the stories off and on, in between novels. Almost against my will, I got lost in most of them. The problem with the short story being … it’s over too soon! But, I know from his novel that the whole(s) may not be as delicious as the tastes … and therefore, I am sated.

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